Because I personally think they are. At least among younger rock music fans who grew up with both bands’ music who now old enough to control the voice of the Internet and very nostalgic of a time when rock music was still mainstream.
The only people who still seem to hate them are 90’s rock fanboys who can’t still seem to accept the talent that both bands had or baby boomers who are too old to appreciate the music of both bands anyways. That or Generation Zers who don’t even listen to rock music and nothing but pop and hip-hop crap.
That doesn’t mean anyone is going around calling them some of the greatest bands ever to make music or anything…it just means that they are no longer considered as bad as they use to be and it’s become very cliched to hate on them.
I believe with the inclusion of Creed in a particular Super Bowl commercial yields evidence that the trend is now over, replaced…by the immortal force that is the meme.
Nickelback, I think gets too much hate and their hits from the 2000’s shouldn’t be forgotten. Like songs like Savin’ Me, Too Bad, Far Away, Someday and If Today Was Your Last Day are good songs in their own right that you never really hear on the radio anymore, which is a shame because they were really big hits back in the day.
As for Creed, I like them and have always been a fan…but I have always been able to see why they are so easy to mock and while I haven’t listened to too much Alter Bridge…I have definitely heard many times they are better than Creed which is probably true as evidenced by how long they have been together as opposed to Creed.